The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to blowout preventers, and more specifically, to monitoring components of blowout preventers.
Conventional blowout preventers (BOPs) include one or more sealing elements (e.g., an annular packer, or packing unit) configured to, for example, create a seal about a well tool (e.g., drillpipe) and/or completely seal a wellbore when actuated. Such sealing elements are typically fabricated from a process compatible elastomeric material. However, such elastomeric materials are subject to degradation due to, for example, loss of material, change in properties due to ageing (e.g., elasticity, stiffness, or the like), thereby having a limited useful life. Such degradation could lead to catastrophic failure of the blowout preventer.
As such, frequent maintenance and inspection and/or replacement of the sealing elements occur on a predetermined time based schedule. However, the inventors have observed that such time based schedules are inaccurate with respect to the useful life of the sealing element, thereby possibly resulting in missed detection of a potentially premature failure of a sealing element, or alternatively, a premature replacement of a functional sealing element, resulting in higher cost and waste.
Therefore, the inventors have provided an improved method for monitoring a sealing element.